The therapeutic landscape of Non Small Lung Cancer (NSCLC) has been profoundly changed over the last decade with the clinical introduction of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and the discovery of EGFR activating mutations as the major predictive factor to these agents. Despite impressive clinical activity against EGFR-mutated NSCLCs, the benefit seen with 1st and 2nd generation EGFR TKIs is usually transient and virtually all patients become resistant. Several different mechanisms of acquired resistance have been reported to date, but the vast majority of patients develop a secondary exon 20 mutation in the ATP-binding site of EGFR, namely T790M...

BACKGROUND: Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models are important tools in precision medicine and for the development of targeted therapies to treat cancer patients. This study aimed to evaluate our precision medicine strategy that integrates genomic profiling and preclinical drug-screening platforms, in order to personalize cancer treatments using PDX models. METHODS: We performed array-comparative genomic hybridization, microarray, and targeted next-generation sequencing analyses, in order to determine the oncogenic driver mutations...

BACKGROUND: This retrospective study investigated the association between the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) score and the survival of patients with stage IIIB-IV (advanced, non-resectable) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who also did not have gene mutations in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) or anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK). METHODS: The records of 165 patients (28-80 y, median 61 y) who met the above criteria and were admitted to Beijing Friendship Hospital Capital Medical University from 1 May 2010 to 1 October 2014were reviewed...

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most prevalent and malignant brain tumor, displaying notorious resistance to conventional therapy, partially due to molecular and genetic heterogeneity. Understanding the mechanisms for gliomagenesis, tumor stem/progenitor cell propagation and phenotypic diversity is critical for devising effective and targeted therapy for this lethal disease. The basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor OLIG2, which is universally expressed in gliomas, has emerged as an important player in GBM cell reprogramming, genotoxic resistance, and tumor phenotype plasticity...

While the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is an established regulator of skin development and homeostasis, the functions of the related tyrosine kinase receptors ERBB2 and ERBB3 in this tissue have only recently been examined. Previously reported, skin-specific deletion of each of these receptors in mice resulted in similar defects in keratinocyte proliferation and migration, resulting in impaired wound healing and tumorigenesis. Because both ERBB2 and ERBB3 are targets for treating an array of cancer types, it is important to examine the consequences of receptor inhibition in human keratinocytes...

Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) incidence is increasing in the USA. Gemcitabine (G) and oxaliplatin (O) are active in HCC and biliary duct cancer (BDC). Erlotinib (E) is an EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) with known activity against both. We sought to evaluate the efficacy of the combination G+O+E. Patients with either of the two diagnosis were treated in a phase II trial. Simons 2 stage design was used. A disease-control rate (DCR), complete response (CR) + partial response (PR)+ stable disease (SD) at 24 weeks of ≤20% and >40% (P0 and P1 of 0...

BACKGROUND: Before mutation testing of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene was recognized as highly associated with the activity of EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), clinically defined patient populations with bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC) and never smokers were identified as likely to benefit from EGFR TKIs. From preclinical and clinical data suggesting potentially improved efficacy with a combination of an EGFR TKI and the antiangiogenic agent bevacizumab, the Southwestern Oncology Group (SWOG) initiated paired phase II trials to evaluate the combination of erlotinib/bevacizumab in patients with advanced BAC (SWOG S0635) or never smokers with advanced lung adenocarcinoma (SWOG S0636)...

BACKGROUND: Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) are involved in the proliferation and survival of many cancer types. Enhanced antitumor activity may be achieved through combined inhibition of these pathways. We report results for pictilisib (GDC-0941, a class I pan-PI3K inhibitor) plus erlotinib (an EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor) in patients with advanced solid tumors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A 3 + 3 dose-escalation study was carried out at a starting daily dose of 60 mg pictilisib on days 1-21 of a 28-day cycle and 150 mg erlotinib from day 2 of cycle 1...

Epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) are approved for second-line treatment of EGFR wild-type (EGFR-wt) nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, results from randomised trials performed to compare EGFR-TKIs with chemotherapy in this population did not show any survival benefit. In the era of immunotherapy, many drugs are approved for second-line treatment of EGFR-wt NSCLC and there is a need to reassess the role of EGFR-TKIs in this setting.The Biomarkers France study is a large nationwide cohort of NSCLC patients tested for EGFR mutations...

Dietary deficiency of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) is involved in the pathophysiology and etiology of major depressive disorder. Supplementation with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) exerts antidepressant-like effect; however, the molecular mechanism of DHA action remains unclear. Here we examined the effects of DHA on the modulation of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), which is essential for neural development, plasticity, neurogenesis, and survival. We demonstrated that DHA treatment significantly increased GDNF release in a concentration dependent manner in rat C6 glioma cells (C6 cells) and primary cultured rat astrocytes, which is also associated with increased expression of GDNF mRNA...

The discovery of mutations in EGFR significantly changed the treatment paradigm of patients with EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), a particular group of patients with different clinical characteristics and outcome to EGFR-wild-type patients. In these patients, the treatment of choice as first-line therapy is first- or second-generation EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs), such as gefitinib, erlotinib, or afatinib. Inevitably, after the initial response, all patients become refractory to these drugs...

The receptor for epidermal growth factor (EGFR) is a prime target for cancer therapy across a broad variety of tumor types. As it is a tyrosine kinase, small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) targeting signal transduction, as well as monoclonal antibodies against the EGFR, have been investigated as anti-tumor agents. However, despite the long-known enigmatic EGFR gene amplification and protein overexpression in glioblastoma, the most aggressive intrinsic human brain tumor, the potential of EGFR as a target for this tumor type has been unfulfilled...

Breast cancer, the most common malignancy among women worldwide, is a heterogeneous disease, and it therefore has remarkably different biological characteristics and clinical behavior. Breast cancer has been divided into several different molecular subtypes based on the status of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2, also named as ErbB2) status. Her2 is a member of EGFR family of transmembrane tyrosine kinase-type receptors, and is involved in the activation of its downstream signaling cascades, which could promote cell proliferation, metastasis, and angiogenesis in tumors...

The epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor (EGFR) is an important regulator of cell growth, proliferation, survival, migration, and metabolism. EGF binding to EGFR triggers the activation of the receptor's intrinsic kinase activity, in turn eliciting the recruitment of many secondary signaling proteins and activation of downstream signals, such as the activation of phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) and Akt, a process requiring the phosphorylation of Gab1. While the identity of many signals that can be activated by EGFR has been revealed, how the spatiotemporal organization of EGFR signaling within cells controls receptor outcome remains poorly understood...

Signals transduced from ligand-activated receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) lead to a diverse array of biological outcomes, such as cell proliferation. Strict regulation of RTK activity is therefore necessary to prevent aberrancies in cell signaling that can lead to diseases such as cancer. RTKs are activated at the plasma membrane (PM) upon ligand binding. Contrary to the initial belief, RTK activity does not terminate immediately following endocytosis, instead RTKs remain active while being trafficked in endosomes...

Our current understanding of endosomal signaling is incomplete given our inability to generate endosomal signals in isolation from plasma membrane signals. We present a novel method to specifically activate epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor (EGFR) following its internalization into endosomes. This method will allow us to address questions such as whether endosomal signaling is sufficient to activate signal transduction pathways and produce biological responses. In this method, the cells are treated with EGF in the presence of AG1478, a specific EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor, and monensin, which blocks recycling of EGFR...

The ErbB receptor family, also known as the EGF receptor family or type I receptor family, includes the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor (EGFR) or ErbB1/Her1, ErbB2/Her2, ErbB3/Her3, and ErbB4/Her4. Among all RTKs, EGFR was the first RTK identified and the first one linked to cancer. Thus, EGFR has also been the most intensively studied among all RTKs. ErbB receptors are activated after homodimerization or heterodimerization. The ErbB family is unique among the various groups of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) in that ErbB3 has impaired kinase activity, while ErbB2 does not have a direct ligand...